An Arsenal blog bringing you news, opinion and humour on a daily basis. Well, I'll try at the very least…

Is it wrong of my to covet the advances of an older man? Le-Yu Wong may be an 83-year-old retired general in the Vietnamese army, his family may fear I wish only to exploit him for his vast fortune accrued smuggling heroin into America, but I believe our love is pure. When he barks orders, his voice is like an enchanting, mellifluous arrow through my heart. When his gentle, diminutive hands explore every inch of my body, I feel complete in both mind and soul. When he touches my pen………

Shit! This is the wrong blog. Quick, James! Cross that bit out and act like nothing has happened…

Morning, folks.

As a means of keeping up with my desired posting time of 9am, and because the constraints of work don’t always allow me to scribe on the day itself; I’m writing this whilst watching the African Cup of Nations final between Ivory Coast and Zambia. It’s not a classic by any means, but there are some good players on show and I’m quite enjoying it. Gervinho has done a fair bit of running around without doing anything of any note. Let’s hope he doesn’t get injured… Oh, hold-on, he’s just won a penalty… Drogba’s taking it… Opps, that was unbelievably shit-awful!

Quick update:Zambia won the crown of African champions on penalties. Gervinho missed one. Twitter is awash with idiots claiming his confidence will be shot to oblivion, and he’ll return a broken shadow of his former self. Let’s give the poor guy a chance, yeah? I feel sorry for him. He deserves the benefit of the doubt. Failure can spur people on to achieve great things.

On to more pressing concerns…

The world of Arsenal is deafeningly quiet today. There’s been little or no news to report. A few rumours have been circling various outlets claiming Sunderland’s impressive Stephane Sessegnon has played himself onto our shortlist of players we’d like to snap-up. The Sunday Express claim we’d be willing to offer ¬£12m and Nicklas Bendtner to secure his services. Yep, you saw that right; the greatest striker on Earth is an add-on in a proposed transfer. How the mighty have fallen. Sessegnon is a good player, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t help but think we could do a fair bit better at that price if we shop elsewhere.

Per Mertesacker’s injury is currently a mystery. Most seem to think it’s a season-ender, Wenger said yesterday he felt it was ligament damage to the ankle and the club await the results of a scan to confirm. He will definitely miss the game at the San Siro on Wednesday. It’s a great shame as he was starting to show some good form, and I believe his calming influence on the back four and experienced head often goes unnoticed and unappreciated. Fortunately, it’s coincided with the return of Kieran Gibbs and enables Vermaelen to rejoin Koscielny in the centre.

Speaking of Vermaelen, he’s hardly enamoured with having to play at left back, by all accounts. The Verminator had this to say:

‚??I am fed up playing at left-back, I don‚??t think I am good there. I want to achieve my highest level and I can‚??t do that on the left.‚?Ě

‚??I play there to help the team but it gives me no satisfaction as I can‚??t reach my best standard. I do my job but seldom feel content after matches. If the team wins I am happy, but it remains frustrating.‚?Ě

Can’t say I blame him. He is arguably the best centre back at the club, and he’s being played out of position. I’d rather our players were aiming towards constant improvement of themselves. With Mertesacker out, he’ll soon be back where he belongs, and I think he could form a very good partnership with Koscielny.

And that my friends, is about all there is. As the game on Wednesday gets closer, they’ll be comment from inside the camp and team news for me to cast a critical eye over. But until then, thanks for reading, you beautiful bastards. There’s a section below for your comments and you can keep up with my nonsense on Twitter – _ArmchairGooner.

I’m going to finish on a slightly different note today. My colleague in armchair reporting, and the guy I pilfer outrageously from when I need a good review of The Arsenal, Tim Liew writes a really interesting piece occasionally called The Nostalgia Jukebox. His musical tastes may differ wildly from my own, but it’s a inventive idea and well worth a few moments of your time. Check it out.

2 Responses

I’m a little surprised more hasn’t been made of just how big a result Saturday was for us, but I suppose media focus has been concentrated on THAT non-handshake rather than anything else like, you know, actual football.

I’ve been mightily impressed by Sessegon (not least because he has been a heavyweight contributor to my fantasy footy team), and he would fit very well into our system as a wide attacker – pacy, skillful, able to cut inside, good shot on him. ¬£12m plus Bendtner sounds a bit much (that would value him somewhere a bit north of ¬£20m, I guess), but he’s definitely a talent. The only issue for me is that he’s really a right-sided player – if only he played on the other side. I’d certainly take him over the much-linked-with Junior Hoilett, who is a decent player but doesn’t strike me as an improvement on what we currently have.

Mind you, after last night I never want to see Gervinho anywhere near taking a penalty ever again. Good grief, that was bad.